The new relay tower south of Seward. The tower is being used for keeping the Nebraska Highway Department updated on the flow of traffic through Highway 15.

Jeff Hajny

    Driving on Highway 15, drivers may notice a new tower sitting in a ditch about three miles outside of Seward.
     This 100-foot tower is one of three new relay towers placed by the Nebraska Department of Roads District 1. The department placed towers at the Seward, Milford and Pleasant Dale interchanges.
     The tower serves as a relay tower. Other towers take pictures of traffic and send them to this tower, which will then relay messages to the office in Seward, and then to the district office in Lincoln.
     The information obtained by these towers will help the highway department stay updated on the flow of traffic through the highways in the Seward County area.
     The tower has not yet been activated and the cost of this project has not been determined.
     "This project is part of our traffic management. We wanted a way to keep an eye on how the traffic in the Seward area is moving with the lowest possible cost and the tower was it," Roger Kalkwarf, district operator and maintenance manager at the Nebraska Department of Roads in Lincoln, said.